Software development is the process of creating computer programs. It includes designing, documenting, testing and bug fixing. These steps are necessary for creating and maintaining applications and frameworks. Software development and software engineering often get confused but they have very distinctive requirements.
What is the difference between software development and software engineering?
Software engineers work with engineering principles to build software and systems to solve real world problems. They use modeling language and other tools to devise solutions that can be applied to problems in a general way, as opposed to solving for a specific instance or a client.
Software developers however can be closely involved with specific project areas — including writing code. As stated above, they design, program, document, test and bug fix to create and maintain applications and frameworks. They also drive the overall software development life cycle (sdlf).
What is the software development life cycle?
Software development life cycles identify the phases and the structured flows from phase to phase of development processes — including planning, analysis, design, implementation, testing, integration and maintenance. There are two commonly used models of sdlc which are Waterfall and Agile.
What is agile software development?
Agile development is based on principles that focus more on people, collaboration, and flexible responses to change. Instead of planning for the whole project, it breaks down software development work in small increments completed in iterations. Each iteration includes all sdlc phases and as a result a working product is delivered at the end. After several iterations, a new or updated product is released.
Waterfall development is a method in which specialized tasks completed in one phase need to be reviewed and verified before moving to the next phase. The whole project needs to be planned before starting any phase. It is a linear and sequential approach, where phases flow (waterfalls) to the next.
To sum up the main differences between them, the Waterfall approach values planning ahead, while the Agile approach values adaptability and involvement.
What do software developers do?
Software developers can work in basically every industry as all types of businesses need some type of development in today’s age. They can write code and program for a variety of consumers from big corporations to local businesses. They can create, maintain and protect frameworks and applications.
How to learn software development?
With the recent rise of coding bootcamps in the past decade, becoming a software developer is easier than ever. Most online bootcamps take less than a year to complete and you can learn front-end, back-end or full-stack development depending on your wants and needs. What is great about the software developer route is that you absolutely do not need a college degree to become a successful software developer.
Top technical skills for software developers
If you are interested in becoming a software developer you will need to learn languages and tools needed for programming. Technical skills needed might differ depending on the role and path you choose to take. Below are some examples of the most used development tools.
- Java
- SQL
- Software engineering
- JavaScript
- Python
- Microsoft C#
- Linux
- Git
- Oracle
- DevOps